Hammersmith Road Gridlock

Tony Devenish: At a recent MQT you described Stephen Cowan as an excellent Council Leader. How are you working with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to assess how to stop the complete gridlock of Hammersmith Road?

The Mayor: There is no evidence to show that Hammersmith Road is in a state of “complete gridlock.”
Transport for London (TfL) is working closely with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to support the successful operation of its temporary cycling scheme. TfL has made a number of changes to signal timings to improve the flow of traffic along this route and support reliable bus services, which are also crucial in the recovery from the pandemic.
The council is now working with TfL on a new design for the temporary scheme, which will further improve the operation of Hammersmith Road for all road users. TfL is working with the borough to further improve bus performance and is supplying bus performance data to support this. Subject to funding, improvements will be implemented in the coming weeks.

Internal Audits of Outside Contractors’ Safety Management Systems

Caroline Pidgeon: Following Questions 2020/0023 and 2020/0352, please provide the internal audit reference numbers, titles, dates and conclusions of all TfL internal audits of any aspect of an outside contractor’s safety management system published by the Audit & Assurance Committee since 2012.

The Mayor: A list of audits of Transport for London suppliers from 2013 to date is attached. These audits all include safety management systems as at least one of the audit scope items. Please note that records from prior to 2013 are not available due to changes in internal structure.

Permitted Development Rights

Murad Qureshi: Following on from MQ 2019/3835 how many net new homes have been provided through Permitted Development conversion to residential use in 2018/19 and 2019/20, and how many of these have been for affordable homes?

The Mayor: During 2018/19, the London Development Database records a total of 3,003 residential units completed in the various forms of permitted development. Of these, 42 are affordable.
Data for 2019/20 is not yet available.

Metropolitan Open Land in Planning White Paper

Nicky Gavron: Are you concerned at the omission of references to Metropolitan Open Land in the Government’s ‘Planning for the Future’ White Paper and the ‘Changes to the current planning system’ consultation paper?

The Mayor: I am concerned that the Government has given insufficient importance to the value of parks and open green spaces in its proposals for changing the planning system. Metropolitan Open Land is a designation used only within London, and the new London Plan gives the same status to MOL as Green Belt - reflecting its importance for Londoners and the liveability of our city. I would therefore expect that provisions for Green Belt in the new planning system should also apply to MOL.

LLDC Press Officers

Shaun Bailey: How many press officers did the LLDC employ in the 2019/20 year and what was the total cost of this?

The Mayor: The London Legacy Development Corporation employed three Press Officers during 2019/20, with one of these posts being vacated in September 2019 and remaining vacant since.
The total cost for the 2019/20 financial year was £132,760 including assumptions for on costs.